The first thing to note is that this was the final post-tournament season which did not have a weekend international break in November. A midweek round of friendlies was played on Wednesday 14 November.

Chelsea played their semi final at the FIFA Club World Cup on Thursday 13 December with the final on Sunday 16 December. The League Cup Quarter Finals were played on 11/12 December. The following midweek was free which was when Chelsea defeated Leeds 5-1 at Elland Road.

Chelsea's league game from the 15 December weekend was Southampton at home. This was played on Wednesday 16 January, the midweek for FA Cup Third Round replays. It just so happened that Chelsea were drawn away to Southampton in the Third Round of the FA Cup meaning that the league game would have been replaced with the replay if needed.

So, if Liverpool do play in the FIFA Club World Cup in December it would make sense to bring forward their PL fixture to 20/21 August. But as @Judio says, this could be awkward especially as TV would probably want to show the game.

To get an extra free midweek, I would like to see the EFL permanently change the League Cup SF round to be only 1 match rather than 2 legs, and have the SF the midweek of the 2nd leg, freeing up the 1st leg early Jan midweek for rest, or PL catchups due to frozen pitches, or to play a rearranged LC QF when an English club is in CWC in December during the usual LC QF midweek. Yes 2 legs is a money spinner, but all other rounds are 1 match, and LC SF is not special enough for there to be a need for it to take up 2 midweeks(even FA Cup has majorly reduced replay midweeks)...and having the extra midweek would be very helpful in 2022-23 with it being impacted by the mid season World Cup.

Regarding playing Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday mentioned earlier this thread...i see no issue...also in late Feb/early March 2020 a club in the Europa may have to play Thursday r32 leg 2, Sunday League Cup Final, then Wednesday FA Cup R5(all 3 successive matches in the 3 cups 3 days apart have potential to go to extra time)

Also does anyone know what date we can expect the PL released and retained list this month? I thought it would be announced by now.

I don't think we should reduce domestic fixtures (in this case the League Cup Semi-Finals down to 1 match, instead of 2 legs) just because FIFA can not organise their own tournaments.

We got rid of Quarter-Final replays in the FA Cup, there was little fuss created over that, and then we got rid of 5th round replays in the FA Cup and there was also very little fuss over that.

What do we end up with. A champions league group stage taking place over 14 weekends, at which point @TLG86 finally says he will have had enough and not continue to go to matches. But surely the road to that has already begun with us getting rid of 5th round and quarter-final replays in the FA Cup, which was accepted.

I personally think the FA and the Premier League should tell FIFA and UEFA we will have FA Cup replays when we want, and arrange Premier League matches when we want.

If Liverpool go deep in all comps including having fa cup r3 and 4 replays, they will have 5 PL games to catch up(rearranged from LC Final, FA Cup QF & SF weekends, plus 2 rearrangements due to CWC - 1 PL Dec 15 weekend game + a 2nd PL game rearranged perhaps the early Dec PL midweek game due to LC QF needing to be played on a Dec PL date before the LC semis begin early Jan) with only 2 free non UEFA midweeks, one in April, one in May.

In that scenario I would say they will use the two CL R16 dates in which they are not playing(too bad UEFA) for 2 PL catch ups - one in Feb, one in March...then use the free April midweek for 1 PL catch up...and then 2 catch up PL games in the final free May midweek for a Friday/Saturday, Monday, Thursday, Sunday finish.

Back timing a December 15 PL game all the way up to an August midweek just in case they go deep in all comps and run out of free dates would be pretty extreme, unless UEFA request they use August CL qual dates rather than them potentially having to use one or both CL R16 free dates.

I don't think we should reduce domestic fixtures (in this case the League Cup Semi-Finals down to 1 match, instead of 2 legs) just because FIFA can not organise their own tournaments.

We got rid of Quarter-Final replays in the FA Cup, there was little fuss created over that, and then we got rid of 5th round replays in the FA Cup and there was also very little fuss over that.

What do we end up with. A champions league group stage taking place over 14 weekends, at which point @TLG86 finally says he will have had enough and not continue to go to matches. But surely the road to that has already begun with us getting rid of 5th round and quarter-final replays in the FA Cup, which was accepted.

I personally think the FA and the Premier League should tell FIFA and UEFA we will have FA Cup replays when we want, and arrange Premier League matches when we want.

I agree the FA, PL, EFL should not be dictated to by UEFA in terms of playing domestic matches on precious UEFA midweeks.

Why has the FA Cup(an iconic event with so much tradition) had its greatness so easily diminished in terms of gradually losing replays of the final 4 rounds, plus now having a midweek r5...but they deem the League Cup (the secondary domestic cup) SF round as so special it must be played over 2 legs, having 2 midweeks dedicated to it, when all of its other rounds including the final are only 1 leg, with that SF format seemingly absolutely untouchable? The FA Cup has one weekend set aside for its semis, I dont think the League Cup needs 2 midweeks set aside for its semis. Also they are stripping the FA Cup (the primary domestic cup) down to almost be another League Cup in terms of minimal format...with PL clubs only possibility of replays now in the third and fourth rounds, alot of that magic is removed...I also dont like seeing fa cup semis at Wembley, it should be reserved for the final.

EFL signed a recent 5 year 595 mil deal with Sky until May 2024...so are the 4 LC SF matches total in the schedule (rather than if there were only 2 LC SF matches total) super critical for the EFL? I would like to see a reduction of LC SF to 1 leg at least for 2022-23 season, if they can negotiate that with their Sky deal, as it seems a real luxury using 2 midweeks for LC SF in Jan 2023, the month after World Cup ends and the month before the winter break starts, and it would give the PL an extra midweek available date in a packed season calendar, which may help them start a week later or finish a week earlier. Needing 2 midweeks to play one LC SF round is a bit like UEFA needing 4 midweeks to play the 2 legged CL R16 round...to me a needless doubling up waste of midweeks. Or if they were to scrap LC SF 2nd legs altogether, and that resulted in FA Cup r5 back to a traditional weekend slot, and a return of r5 replays(midweek), would you prefer that? I certainly would!

I don't think we should reduce domestic fixtures (in this case the League Cup Semi-Finals down to 1 match, instead of 2 legs) just because FIFA can not organise their own tournaments.

We got rid of Quarter-Final replays in the FA Cup, there was little fuss created over that, and then we got rid of 5th round replays in the FA Cup and there was also very little fuss over that.

What do we end up with. A champions league group stage taking place over 14 weekends, at which point @TLG86 finally says he will have had enough and not continue to go to matches. But surely the road to that has already begun with us getting rid of 5th round and quarter-final replays in the FA Cup, which was accepted.

I personally think the FA and the Premier League should tell FIFA and UEFA we will have FA Cup replays when we want, and arrange Premier League matches when we want.

I agree the FA, PL, EFL should not be dictated to by UEFA in terms of playing domestic matches on precious UEFA midweeks.

They're not.

The restriction on the use of UEFA midweeks is a memorandum of understanding between UEFA and the EPFL, of which the Premier League and EFL are members.

It also only applies to "top division matches" so it's unclear why The FA and the EFL are unwilling to organise matches from their respective cup competitions on UEFA dates.

I don't think we should reduce domestic fixtures (in this case the League Cup Semi-Finals down to 1 match, instead of 2 legs) just because FIFA can not organise their own tournaments.

We got rid of Quarter-Final replays in the FA Cup, there was little fuss created over that, and then we got rid of 5th round replays in the FA Cup and there was also very little fuss over that.

What do we end up with. A champions league group stage taking place over 14 weekends, at which point @TLG86 finally says he will have had enough and not continue to go to matches. But surely the road to that has already begun with us getting rid of 5th round and quarter-final replays in the FA Cup, which was accepted.

I personally think the FA and the Premier League should tell FIFA and UEFA we will have FA Cup replays when we want, and arrange Premier League matches when we want.

I don't think we should reduce domestic fixtures (in this case the League Cup Semi-Finals down to 1 match, instead of 2 legs) just because FIFA can not organise their own tournaments.

We got rid of Quarter-Final replays in the FA Cup, there was little fuss created over that, and then we got rid of 5th round replays in the FA Cup and there was also very little fuss over that.

What do we end up with. A champions league group stage taking place over 14 weekends, at which point @TLG86 finally says he will have had enough and not continue to go to matches. But surely the road to that has already begun with us getting rid of 5th round and quarter-final replays in the FA Cup, which was accepted.

I personally think the FA and the Premier League should tell FIFA and UEFA we will have FA Cup replays when we want, and arrange Premier League matches when we want.

I don't think we should reduce domestic fixtures (in this case the League Cup Semi-Finals down to 1 match, instead of 2 legs) just because FIFA can not organise their own tournaments.

We got rid of Quarter-Final replays in the FA Cup, there was little fuss created over that, and then we got rid of 5th round replays in the FA Cup and there was also very little fuss over that.

What do we end up with. A champions league group stage taking place over 14 weekends, at which point @TLG86 finally says he will have had enough and not continue to go to matches. But surely the road to that has already begun with us getting rid of 5th round and quarter-final replays in the FA Cup, which was accepted.

I personally think the FA and the Premier League should tell FIFA and UEFA we will have FA Cup replays when we want, and arrange Premier League matches when we want.

Absolutely agree.

Prexit?

lol

No, just a bit more resistance to the behemoth that is the "Champions" League.

I don't think we should reduce domestic fixtures (in this case the League Cup Semi-Finals down to 1 match, instead of 2 legs) just because FIFA can not organise their own tournaments.

We got rid of Quarter-Final replays in the FA Cup, there was little fuss created over that, and then we got rid of 5th round replays in the FA Cup and there was also very little fuss over that.

What do we end up with. A champions league group stage taking place over 14 weekends, at which point @TLG86 finally says he will have had enough and not continue to go to matches. But surely the road to that has already begun with us getting rid of 5th round and quarter-final replays in the FA Cup, which was accepted.

I personally think the FA and the Premier League should tell FIFA and UEFA we will have FA Cup replays when we want, and arrange Premier League matches when we want.

Absolutely agree.

Prexit?

lol

No, just a bit more resistance to the behemoth that is the "Champions" League.

Again, the Premier League itself was a part of the process that led to the agreement that tries to avoid top-flight games up against the Champions League and Europa League.

Again, the Premier League itself was a part of the process that led to the agreement that tries to avoid top-flight games up against the Champions League and Europa League.

It's not a UEFA diktat, despite what people try and make out.

Well, indeed - and I would assume the Premier League wouldn't want to schedule matches against the Champions League unless it was absolutely unavoiadable, because they would get small TV audiences and all the attention would be on the Champions League.

I've said this before, but twenty years ago there was more Champions League because we had the second group stage, which meant in the autumn teams were playing pretty much every midweek. That was got rid of after a few years because it was considered boring and too much of an imposition of the domestic calendar, so they are willing to make changes if it's not working. UEFA's role is not to undermine and destory English football, and very often they're doing this stuff because the clubs themselves have them over a barrel.

So, if Liverpool do play in the FIFA Club World Cup in December it would make sense to bring forward their PL fixture to 20/21 August. But as @Judio says, this could be awkward especially as TV would probably want to show the game.

I think this is getting into the realms of overthinking here, I'm afraid. It's certainly not the first time an English club has been in the World Club Championships, and indeed it's less of an issue now than it has been in the past because in those days they would also miss a fixture for the Super Cup as it was played at the weekend. Liverpool will miss one Premier League fixture and if the schedule's so tight it can't be played anywhere, heaven help them.

In 2005-06, Liverpool played in the World Club Championships, the Super Cup and the Champions League qualifiers, and they reached the FA Cup Final, and all that in a season which had to finish especially early for the World Cup.

I don't think there should be too much of an issue with scheduling Liverpool's rearranged Premier League game from December for some point in the second half of the season.

I think the more interesting aspect would be if they made the quarter-finals of the League Cup and when they would play that game - I guess it might be awkward to play instead of Liverpool's PL midweek game in early December because that's meant to be the first case of every team's game from the same round being shown live and part of the trial period that Amazon will be offering and so on.

Klopp hasn't generally seemed to prioritise the League/FA Cup competitions so I'm not sure it's likely that they would go far in both although obviously it's partly down to circumstance.

Well, indeed - and I would assume the Premier League wouldn't want to schedule matches against the Champions League unless it was absolutely unavoiadable, because they would get small TV audiences and all the attention would be on the Champions League.

I've said this before, but twenty years ago there was more Champions League because we had the second group stage, which meant in the autumn teams were playing pretty much every midweek. That was got rid of after a few years because it was considered boring and too much of an imposition of the domestic calendar, so they are willing to make changes if it's not working. UEFA's role is not to undermine and destory English football, and very often they're doing this stuff because the clubs themselves have them over a barrel.

BiB - Absoutely, but all this business about restructuring the Champions League is being driven by the likes of Agnelli. I appreciate that 2018-19 is only one season, and our teams haven't exactly dominated despite having a lot of money since 2013, but it does feel like we're at the point where the Premier League is the European Super League. I think it partly explains why the two European finals were a bit underwhelming.

I think this is getting into the realms of overthinking here, I'm afraid. It's certainly not the first time an English club has been in the World Club Championships, and indeed it's less of an issue now than it has been in the past because in those days they would also miss a fixture for the Super Cup as it was played at the weekend. Liverpool will miss one Premier League fixture and if the schedule's so tight it can't be played anywhere, heaven help them.

In 2005-06, Liverpool played in the World Club Championships, the Super Cup and the Champions League qualifiers, and they reached the FA Cup Final, and all that in a season which had to finish especially early for the World Cup.

Things to note this time: There was no weekend international break at the end of March. A round of friendlies was played Wednesday 1 March. This was well before the Last 16 of the Champions League was spread over four weeks and the third round of the League Cup was not played until 25 October. This was also the season when four rounds of Premier League games were squeezed in between 26 December and 2 January - there were lots of complaints.

The first opportunity to play one of these games was 21 September when the Second Round of the League Cup was being played. However, Sky showed Arsenal v Everton on Monday Night Football (neither were in the League Cup that week) so I guess Liverpool v Arsenal was not an option that midweek. The other two fixtures were not available as Charlton and Sunderland were in the League Cup.

The first game to be played was the Sunderland game which was brought forward to Wednedsay 30 November. This was the midweek for the Fourth Round of the League Cup and must have been arranged/confirmed at quite short notice after Sunderland and Liverpool were knocked out in the Third Round on 25 October.

Arsenal progressed to the Semi Final of the League Cup, but Charlton were knocked out in the Fourth Round. Nevertheless, the Charlton fixture was played on Wednesday 8 February - the midweek for FA Cup Fourth Round replays. The Arsenal game was played the following Tuesday night. This meant that having played three games in 26 days in January, Liverpool then played seven games in 21 days before losing 1-0 away to Benfica in the Champions League.

I don't think there should be too much of an issue with scheduling Liverpool's rearranged Premier League game from December for some point in the second half of the season.

I think the more interesting aspect would be if they made the quarter-finals of the League Cup and when they would play that game - I guess it might be awkward to play instead of Liverpool's PL midweek game in early December because that's meant to be the first case of every team's game from the same round being shown live and part of the trial period that Amazon will be offering and so on.

Klopp hasn't generally seemed to prioritise the League/FA Cup competitions so I'm not sure it's likely that they would go far in both although obviously it's partly down to circumstance.

The closest thing I can think of is 2006-07 when the Liverpool v Arsenal Quarter Final was fogged off. That game was played on the night that the first leg of the Semi Final should have been played. The second leg of Arsenal v Tottenham Semi Final was played on 31 January in place of Premier League fixtures.

Tottenham's Premier League game at Everton was played on Wednesday 21 February (the same night as Champions League Last 16 ties) thanks to Feyernord being kicked out of the UEFA Cup after a fan threw a glass of beer at Morten Gamst Pedersen (I don't remember this!).

Arsenal's home game with Man City was postponed at least once more as Arsenal had FA Cup replays with Bolton and then Blackburn. It was eventually played on 17 April.

Translated (badly) as
In a letter signed by seven of the nine LaLiga clubs that are in the association, Athletic Club, Atletico de Madrid, Sevilla, Real Sociedad, Valencia, Villarreal and Malaga , and directed to the general secretary of the ECA, Michele Centenaro, they rejected the future changes proposed by the ECA and UEFA Executive Committee.In his opinion, they represent "a potential great threat for both the national leagues and for most clubs" and represent "a frontal attack on the stability of domestic competitions and competitive equilibrium"."We are totally interested in contributing to improving European competitions, taking part in a constructive dialogue and reaching agreements with all those involved: national leagues, clubs and other public authorities, however, we find unacceptable the changes in this process , which leave very limited the space for negotiation, "they said.

The closest thing I can think of is 2006-07 when the Liverpool v Arsenal Quarter Final was fogged off. That game was played on the night that the first leg of the Semi Final should have been played. The second leg of Arsenal v Tottenham Semi Final was played on 31 January in place of Premier League fixtures.

A further example of this was in 2010 when both the first legs of the League Cup semi-finals were called off due to snow. The first leg of Blackburn vs Villa was rearranged for the following midweek, FA Cup third round replay week of course, which meant they could play the second leg at the scheduled time. The first leg of Man U vs Man City was then played on the scheduled day of the second leg, and the second leg was again played on the Premier League midweek the following week.

The closest thing I can think of is 2006-07 when the Liverpool v Arsenal Quarter Final was fogged off. That game was played on the night that the first leg of the Semi Final should have been played. The second leg of Arsenal v Tottenham Semi Final was played on 31 January in place of Premier League fixtures.

A further example of this was in 2010 when both the first legs of the League Cup semi-finals were called off due to snow. The first leg of Blackburn vs Villa was rearranged for the following midweek, FA Cup third round replay week of course, which meant they could play the second leg at the scheduled time. The first leg of Man U vs Man City was then played on the scheduled day of the second leg, and the second leg was again played on the Premier League midweek the following week.

Man City v Blackburn on Monday Night Football (ESPN, I think) prevented their League Cup tie from going ahead that midweek.

Translated (badly) as
In a letter signed by seven of the nine LaLiga clubs that are in the association, Athletic Club, Atletico de Madrid, Sevilla, Real Sociedad, Valencia, Villarreal and Malaga , and directed to the general secretary of the ECA, Michele Centenaro, they rejected the future changes proposed by the ECA and UEFA Executive Committee.In his opinion, they represent "a potential great threat for both the national leagues and for most clubs" and represent "a frontal attack on the stability of domestic competitions and competitive equilibrium"."We are totally interested in contributing to improving European competitions, taking part in a constructive dialogue and reaching agreements with all those involved: national leagues, clubs and other public authorities, however, we find unacceptable the changes in this process , which leave very limited the space for negotiation, "they said.

Thanks - very interesting.

Can you confirm - is it referring to the European Club Association - ie implying nine La Liga clubs are in that association?

Translated (badly) as
In a letter signed by seven of the nine LaLiga clubs that are in the association, Athletic Club, Atletico de Madrid, Sevilla, Real Sociedad, Valencia, Villarreal and Malaga , and directed to the general secretary of the ECA, Michele Centenaro, they rejected the future changes proposed by the ECA and UEFA Executive Committee.In his opinion, they represent "a potential great threat for both the national leagues and for most clubs" and represent "a frontal attack on the stability of domestic competitions and competitive equilibrium"."We are totally interested in contributing to improving European competitions, taking part in a constructive dialogue and reaching agreements with all those involved: national leagues, clubs and other public authorities, however, we find unacceptable the changes in this process , which leave very limited the space for negotiation, "they said.

Thanks - very interesting.

Can you confirm - is it referring to the European Club Association - ie implying nine La Liga clubs are in that association?

Translated (badly) as
In a letter signed by seven of the nine LaLiga clubs that are in the association, Athletic Club, Atletico de Madrid, Sevilla, Real Sociedad, Valencia, Villarreal and Malaga , and directed to the general secretary of the ECA, Michele Centenaro, they rejected the future changes proposed by the ECA and UEFA Executive Committee.In his opinion, they represent "a potential great threat for both the national leagues and for most clubs" and represent "a frontal attack on the stability of domestic competitions and competitive equilibrium"."We are totally interested in contributing to improving European competitions, taking part in a constructive dialogue and reaching agreements with all those involved: national leagues, clubs and other public authorities, however, we find unacceptable the changes in this process , which leave very limited the space for negotiation, "they said.

Thanks - very interesting.

Can you confirm - is it referring to the European Club Association - ie implying nine La Liga clubs are in that association?

That is strong opposition - for starters the whole of the PL and what can be considered 7 out of the 9 "most important" La Liga clubs.

Plus of course there may well be plenty of other opposition elsewhere as well.

As I previously posted I would have thought all countries ranked between approx 7th and 15th (plus those hoping to get into that range) would almost certainly be against - because they will go from either having a team in the group stage or a very good chance of having one to being very unlikely to have one under these proposals.